wills and estates

The wills & estates team at gadens melbourne provides specialist estate planning, trust advice, superannuation and succession planning services to a wide range of clients.

Statistics suggest that over half of Australians do not have a Will which can cause significant issues should the worst happen. We have available a complementary Wills Guidelines and Instruction Sheet for you to download and consider with respect to your unique situation.

You may wish to complete the form in preparation for completing a formal Will. Doing this will save time and once you have completed the necessary questions, you can confidentially return the form to one of our lawyers who will contact you to discuss further. If you are interested in downloading this form, please click here.

Our experienced team’s expertise includes: 

• drafting Wills including complex testamentary trusts;
• preparing Powers of Attorney for all Australian jurisdictions;
• drafting Wills including complex testamentary trusts;
• conducting Estate planning for high-net worth individuals and trustee companies;
• acting in relation to grants of probate and reseals of probate;
• assisting with Estate administration involving assets in foreign jurisdictions;
• preparing Drawing Deeds of Family Arrangement, Deeds of Surrender and Deeds of Acceleration (in respect of life interests);
• advising in relation to non-estate assets, such as superannuation death benefits;
• drawing binding / non-binding nominations in relation to superannuation funds;
• providing advice on the use of testamentary trusts, executor and trustee duties; and
• acting in extensive Estate litigation in the Supreme Court, Magistrates’ and County Courts of Victoria, and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal including:

appointments of, or contested applications concerning administrators and guardians; Testator’s Family Maintenance applications; Cy-pres applications; removal of trustees and life tenants; constructive trust claims; and executor’s commission applications.